Population slowly dropping in Madison County

Published
12:00 am CDT, Tuesday, March 31, 2015

EDWARDSVILLE — Madison County’s population is decreasing, slowly, but County Administrator Joe Parente said the change isn’t yet cause for concern.

According to the most recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the county’s population decreased roughly 1 percent from 2010 until last July, falling from 269,328 in 2010 to 266,560 in 2014. The 2,768-person decrease was a microcosm of a state-wide trend, as most of the counties south of Chicago saw their numbers drop in the four-year span.

The story was the same, and in some cases more noticeable, in neighboring counties. In Calhoun County, the population dropped 133 individuals, a 2.6 percent decrease; Greene County saw a 3.3 percent drop, equating to 452 people; 414 people left Jersey County from 2010 to 2014, a 1.8 percent drop; and Macoupin County lost 1,312 residents, resulting in a 2.7 percent decrease.

For Madison County, Parente said economic factors likely played a big role in the data.

“Anything that’s a small increase or a small decline is probably just attributed to the housing market and the job market,” Parente said. “For population to grow, you either see housing growth, where more people move into the county, or you see significant job creation, where people move in for the jobs. Things have been somewhat stagnant the last few years since the recession, but I wouldn’t consider it to be a large decline, and it’s mostly attributed to lack of growth.”

Generally speaking, most of the smaller counties in Illinois experienced declines in population while the largest counties saw substantial growth. The trend was repeated nationwide, with 2.4 million new residents scattered among the nation’s metropolitan areas, according to the Census Bureau.

That rang true locally as well. Since 2010, the St. Louis metro area, of which the county is a member, grew by 18,460 people from April 2010 to July 2014, per the site. that is a 0.7 percent increase, from 2,787,747 to 2,806,207.

Population measures are significant not just from the standpoint of such things as taxes and state and federal funding levels, but also because they are seen as indicators of future trends and needs for such things as public facilities, schools and new housing developments.

Parente said despite the recent decline in population, the county continues to work to attract new residents.

“One of our priorities is economic development and job growth. That’s something we take seriously and we spend a lot of time and effort on,” Parente said. “We plan on staying the course and continuing to look for new ways to attract investment and create jobs. If that happens, the numbers probably go in the other direction.”